Christian Enticement
Revelation 2:12-17 12 "To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live-- where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city-- where Satan lives. 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.
Jesus says:
I know where you live
I know your faithfulness
I know your failures (You’ve listened to the wrong voices- he who has an ear…)
I know your remedy
I know your reward
-Before 1974, there was a huge portion of land in the northern part of Australia that belonged to the superstitious Aborigines. That land was covered w/ green ants. The Aborigines believed that those green ants were sacred / descendants of their pagan gods.
-A mining company discovered huge deposits of uranium in that land. So they approached the Aborigines about purchasing that land and mining the uranium…but they would not budge: “If you destroy the land of our sacred green ants, our gods will pronounce a curse upon us, and we will have years of drought and famine.
-Well, in 1974, they sold that land to the mining companies. Do you know what changed their minds? 8.3 million dollars! “They may be gods, but for 8.3 million they can find another place to live!”
-Question: Are your convictions for sale? I know a lot of ppl have sold out for a lot less than 8 million dollars.
-Pergamum is known as The Compromising Church.
-It was real in John’s day, & there are many like it today, and it represents the church at large in history between the years of 300-500 A.D.
-In 313 A.D., the emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the church moved out of the catacombs, and into the Cathedrals!
3 Things: Strength of this church / Subtle Seduction / Standard
1. The Strength of the Church
v. 12-13a I know where you live. I know what conditions you serve me under (where Satan’s seat [throne] is).
-The Lord says, “I know you’re serving me in a very evil place.” At the least, Satan was having His way in Pergamum.
-The city of Pergamum was known for its political power, and for emperor worship. It was the first city ever to have a temple dedicated to Caesar. And once a year the residents of Pergamum were forced to enter the temple of Caesar...forced to burn incense upon the altar of Caesar, and to say out loud, “Caesar is God.”
-Pergamum was also known for its pagan worship…it was filled with altars and temples to pagan gods. The altar of Zeus was located in Pergamum. The huge imposing temple of the goddess Athena was there. The temple of the Roman Emperor Hadrian was in Pergamum, as was the temple of the goat god Bacchus, whose upper body was depicted as a man w/ horns, and lower body as a goat w/ cloven feet and a tail.
-Also in Pergamum was the greatest hospital in the ancient world, the ‘Mayo clinic’ of that day. They practiced a combination of medicine and idol worship. The hospital was first and foremost a temple to the Greek god Asclepius, the god of healing. And in this hospital / temple, they used every means of healing imaginable, including a therapy in which you would sleep alone in a dark room at night. Non-poisonous snakes were placed in the room to crawl all over you all night…they believed it to be somehow therapeutic.
-But, for 700 years people came from all over the ancient world for healing to this place. Certainly there were reputable doctors there, practicing medicine current to that date, but overall, the hospital was Satanic, and idolatry was everywhere.
-Now, like their brothers and sisters in Smyrna, the Christians at the church in Pergamum were suffering terrible persecutions at the time of this writing. Some of them were dying for the cause of Christ, and Jesus calls one of them by name in v. 13…Antipas
-v. 13b Secular history tells us more about this man Antipas, whose name, by the way, means “against all”. Antipas was brought to the temple of Caesar, and commanded to swear out loud that Caesar is God. Antipas cried boldly, “Jesus alone is God!” A Roman official said, “Antipas, don’t you know that the whole world is against you?” He replied, “Then Antipas is against the whole world!” Antipas was put into a large, hollow, brass bull, and a fire was built under it, creating an oven where they roasted Antipas to death.
-Satan attacked the early church Smyrna like a roaring lion, but he could not destroy it, and could not get the people to curse God. In Pergamum he shifted his battle plan!
-We move now from the strength of this church to the seduction of this church.
2. The Seduction of the Church
-You see, when Satan found he could not destroy this church with the tactics of a lion, he decided to employ the tactics of a serpent. When he saw that he couldn’t get them to curse, he then succeeded at getting them to compromise!
-v. 14 You may or may not be familiar w/ the names Balaam and Balak. You can read the whole story in Num. 22-25. But here’s a brief summary:
-Balaam was a prophet of God, and in those days prophets had the power to bless, as well as the power to curse. Remember that Elijah prayed for it not to rain, and it didn’t for 3.5 years. Elijah was a prophet of God w/ enormous power available to him. Balaam had access to that same power as a prophet.
-Balak was the king of the Moabites. Balak had one goal: To destroy the nation of Israel. Here’s what happened…Balak, king of the Moabites, went to Balaam, the prophet of God, and tried to hire his services. He asked Balaam to pronounce a curse upon the children of Israel.
-Amazingly, the prophet Balaam actually considered it…he entertained the offer! But, God would not allow it. God turned the curses into blessings. But that’s not the end of the story, no, Balak still got his money’s worth. For when it became obvious to Balaam that God would not allow him to curse Israel, here’s what he told Balak to do:
-He said to make friends w/ the children of Israel. He said, after you’ve befriended them, do this: introduce them to your most beautiful women…invite them to commit fornication w/ those women, and intermarry w/ them…invite them to your religious celebrations, and let them eat meat from your pagan altars…in other words, he was saying, cause Israel to destroy themselves…from the inside out!
-He was saying, “If you can’t curse them, compromise them!” And Israel fell right into the trap, and because of their disobedience 24,000 of them died!
-The “doctrine of Balaam” mentioned here in Rev. 2:14 is the doctrine of compromise. Evidently, people at the church at Pergamum were getting too friendly w/ the world. They were not standing firm in their convictions. Satan lost at the front door, and couldn’t get them to curse, so he went for the back door and got them to compromise.
-Compromise: It’s the genius of politics, the success of a marriage, and it is the death of Biblical convictions. When it comes to convictions, there is no place for compromise!
-In the OT, Pharaoh tried to strike up a compromise w/ Moses. Moses said simply, “Let my people go. We’ll go into the wilderness and worship our God”. Pharaoh did not want them to go at all, and so Pharaoh, a symbol of Satan, offered Moses a series of compromises:
-“You can worship your God, just do it right here in Egypt.” (World)
-Moses said, “Unacceptable!”
-Today Satan says to you and me, “OK, serve God, but stay in the world.”
-But, our God demands radical separation FROM the world.
-Rom. 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
-II Cor. 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing
-For us to accept the compromise…to serve God, but stay in the world, is to buy the lie…the devil’s lie--and as Satan mixes truth and error together, too many Christians swallow it whole!
-And then they try to justify it, saying things like, “I can be a Christian and still do what I want.” But the God of Heaven who created you, and in mercy didn’t destroy you, but in love died for you, and saved you, now takes you by the hand and says, “Come on out of Egypt, and be separate…I will deliver you from this prison of selfishness!”
-Let’s make this world thirsty for what we have! The only way to do that is for them to see a difference. God calls us to be different.
-Long before the world will ever seek to change their eternal future they need to see the possibility of a change in their present!
-2 dangers (extremes) we can fall into when we talk about separation from the world:
-1. Legalism- Technically, legalism is works salvation…keeping the law. But there is a modern day legalism which says: Keep this set of rules and you won’t be worldly…as a matter of fact, you’ll be more spiritual than those who DON’T keep the rules!
-Here’s the problem w/ that: Worldliness is a HEART issue! And transformation must begin in the heart and work its way out. What’s on the inside will always, w/out exception, make its way to the surface. And that’s the kind of conviction that lasts, because it’s real, not just superficial!
-2. Liberalism- Liberalism says, “I’m free in Christ, I can do anything I want, I can look like I want, I can go where I want, I’m free in Christ.” That’s the other extreme, and it, too is wrong…because it matters how I look / where I go / what I do! Some Christians love to focus on the part of the verse that says “God looketh on the heart”, and forget the fact that man looks on the outward appearance!” By the way, it’s MAN we’re supposed to be winning!
-It’s time we allow God to form real convictions with us from the inside out…that will glorify Him because He’ll see that it’s real, and will win others because they’ll see that it’s real!
-We need to avoid both extremes--legalism and liberalism, and have a Biblical balance.
-Pharaoh: “OK, worship God, but do it here in Egypt”
-Moses: Unacceptable!
-So Pharaoh offers a 2nd compromise:
-Ex. 8:28, “OK, serve God, but don’t go too far away.” God told Moses to go 3 days journey into the wilderness. Pharaoh says, if you need to leave Egypt, go ahead, just don’t go so far away...stay near the border…where we can keep an eye on you! Serve God, but don’t go too far away!
-To us, Satan says, OK, serve God, but don’t go so far w/ it…don’t go off the deep end! Don’t become a fanatic! You can serve God, just stay close to the border…be a borderline Christian!
-We get the word “fan” from the word “fanatic”. And it’s ok to be a baseball fan / football / basketball fan…but if it’s Jesus that you’re enthused about, you’re not a fan, you’re a fanatic!
-That’s Satan’s subtle seduction…his method to get us to compromise.
-By the way, it’s interesting what the name Pergamum means: (2 things)
-‘Elevated’ or ‘Married’
-The persecuted church had gotten the victory, they were elevated…and when Satan couldn’t get the church to curse God, this elevated church fell to the devil’s seduction and compromised…and became attracted to the world!
-The Strength of Pergamum: wouldn’t curse the Lord
-The Seduction of Pergamum: compromised w/ the world
-Finally, let’s look at…
3. The Standard of the Church
-v. 12 “Sharp two-edged sword” (speaks of the Word of God)
-Jesus Christ wrote these 7 letters and in each refers to Himself in a different way. Remember to Smyrna He presented Himself as the One which was dead, and is alive! Why? Because they would be called upon to die for Him!
-And so to the compromising church at Pergamum He presents Himself as the Word of God, the standard, not to be compromised, not to be deviated from! Truth is NOT relative, and it’s not vague!
-We must remain true to the Word of God…teach it / preach it / proclaim it / live it / and never water it down just for the sake of a crowd / for fear of hurting feelings / for sake of making it more tolerable to the masses!
-“We’d better stand for something or we’ll fall for anything!”
-(Nicolaitinism, v. 15… “To conquer the people”)
-Ill—reminds me of the preacher / called to pastor little church near a logging camp / went out one day to their camp along the river / noticed they cut down trees, stamped the ends of the logs w/ their brand / dropped in river to float down to the mill / he was disturbed, though, as he noticed them at times pulling logs out of the river, logs that another camp upstream had cut / they’d pull theirs out and cut off the ends, and then stamp their brand on them! / deeply troubled, he wrote a strong sermon titled, “Thou shalt not steal” / preached it / “Great sermon, preacher, what a blessing!” they said / that week he noticed they were still doing it / on Sunday he preached the same sermon, but this time titled it, “Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor’s logs” / they ran him out of town!
-God’s Word is a sword, an offensive weapon! There should be no surprise that if it’s used correctly, it will be offensive!
-Pergamum was doctrinally fairly sound, and they hadn’t denied Christ, but they were married to the world.
-Well, Jesus has a proposal, a marriage proposal…
v. 16 Get it right! “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”
v. 17 Jesus Christ describes here a symbol of intimacy rarer than a diamond, and holds out that stone to you today, and says, “Will you marry me”
-In ancient times, the white stone was used in many ways. When someone was accused of a wrong doing and taken to court - - - when they were acquitted they were given a white stone as a symbol of their innocence. They could show anyone their white stone to prove their innocence. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He has acquitted us from our sin, that we may overcome the sin nature.
-The white stone was also used in elections. A person voting was given a white stone and a black stone. The white stone meant acceptance - - - the black stone meant rejection. In later years, marbles were used. Most are familiar with the term "blackballed". This meant rejection.
-The white stone was given to victors in athletic events. Sometimes the victors were given white stones with the name of the event or the winner of the event inscribed on the stone.
-Another use of the white stone was that a white stone was often given to honored guests. It was generally inscribed with the host's name. The special guest who received the white stone could use it to purchase, or to order the host's servants to do as they asked. It was used as a sign of authority and power granted by the host. All things that belonged to the host were at the disposal of the special guest. We have this promise in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-As the bride of Christ, let’s be faithful to our bridegroom, and in this marriage, there’s no room for compromise!
-Do you have a price tag on your convictions? What would it take for you to be just a little dishonest, and make that deal go through? What would it take for you to fudge just a little on that tax return? or time card? Is there a price tag on your popularity, are you prone to compromise in the face of peer pressure? Is there a price tag on your purity? What does it take to get you to sell out…to compromise? When will you finally, and completely, sell out to God?
-Takeaways:
1. People of God can stay true and make a difference no matter where they live.
2. People of God must remain pure and guard against enticement
3. People of God should receive instruction and repent of their failures
4. People of God will be eternally rewarded for their faithfulness
(Portions of sermon Adapted from Jerry Shirley, sc)
